Skyrim:Miraak (person)

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(RefID: xx01FB99, xx0186AD, xx0186AE, xx017F82, xx01F999)
(lore page)
Added by Dragonborn
Location Apocrypha
Race Nord Gender Male
Level PC×1.1 (range=35-150) Class Miraak
RefID xx01FB99
BaseID xx01FB98
Other Information
Health 747-1220
Magicka 378-580
Stamina 335-470
Primary Skills Speech, One-handed, Heavy Armor, Alteration, Destruction, Restoration
Perks Augmented Shock (Rank 1), Respite, Bladesman (Rank 1), Critical Charge, Magic Resistance (Rank 1), Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Recovery (Rank 1), Extra Damage 2, Reduce Damage
Morality Any Crime Aggression Aggressive
Essential Yes
Faction(s) DLC2ApoTentacleNoHitFaction; DLC2MQ02Faction; Actors in this will never fill world interaction aliases; allied apocrypha creatures; Immune to Bend Will shout; NPCs Immune to Mehrunes Razor; DLC2MQ04MiraakFaction
"Who are you to dare set foot here?"

Miraak is the primary antagonist of the Dragonborn add-on for Skyrim. He is the First Dragonborn, although that term would not become used until after the time of St. Alessia, the first Dragonborn recorded in history. He ruled over the island of Solstheim, where a large temple was dedicated to him.

He served as a leader of the Dragon Cult and possessed a Dragon Priest Mask called Miraak, given to him by the dragons. At some point, he sought out the teachings of Hermaeus Mora, the Demon of Knowledge, and became his champion. Hermaeus Mora taught Miraak the power to bend the will of dragons. Using this knowledge and his innate ability to devour the souls of dragonkind, he turned on his winged overlords and killed a great number of them. Three Dragon Priests, Ahzidal, Dukaan and Zahkriisos, joined him and became his three most powerful servants, called the "Acolyte Priests". Following this, dragons razed his temple in retaliation. Hermaeus Mora protected his new champion, though Miraak became trapped in the Daedric Prince's realm. For more information, see the lore article.

He wears a set of unique robes, gloves, boots, and his eponymous mask. In combat, he primarily utilizes destruction magic and dragon shouts. He also wields two unique weapons: a sword and staff.

After disappearing into Oblivion since the last time Dragons roamed the lands, Miraak is planning his return to conquer Solstheim once more. This is evident by the fact that anyone around an All-Maker stone becomes enchanted and enslaved by Miraak's power, causing them to mindlessly chant, erect shrines to Miraak, and rebuild his ancient temple. When you ask inhabitants around Solstheim whether they know of Miraak, most will say that they have heard of the name, but cannot quite say where; some will become confused and mildly upset at the question and ask to end the conversation.

Miraak also sends cultists to Skyrim in order to hunt down and kill you. Upon being confronted by the Cultists for the first time, the following exchange will occur, starting with "You there! You're the one they call Dragonborn?"

Player Input Response
"Yes, I am Dragonborn." "Your lies fall on deaf ears, Deceiver! The True Dragonborn comes ... You are but his shadow."
"When Lord Miraak appears all shall bear witness. None shall stand to oppose him!"
"The Greybeards seem to think so ..." "Then it is too late. The lie has already taken root in the hearts of men."
"So we shall expose to them the falseness in their hearts by tearing out yours, Deceiver!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." "You shall not stand in the way of the true Dragonborn's return. He comes soon, and we shall offer him your heart!"

Related Quests[edit]

Quest-Related Events[edit]

The Temple of Miraak[edit]

Upon reading the Black Book: Waking Dreams, you will be teleported to Apocrypha just in time to hear Miraak say "The time comes soon when..." Miraak will then acknowledge you by saying "What? Who are you to dare set foot here? Ahh... You are Dragonborn. I can feel it. And yet..."

At this point his dialogue will differ depending on how many dragons you have slain.

Conditions Dialogue
Less than 10 dragons killed "You have done little beyond killing a few dragons."
Between 10 and 25 dragons killed "You have defeated dragons, yes, but still..."
Over 25 dragons killed "You have slain a great many dragons, I see. And yet..."

Regardless of which line he speaks, Miraak will always follow with "You have no idea of the true power a Dragonborn can wield!" He will then demonstrate the Dragon Aspect shout to you, and say "This realm is beyond you. You have no power here. And it is only a matter of time before Solstheim is also mine. I already control the minds of its people. Soon they will finish building my temple, and I can return home." Miraak will turn to the four seekers and say: "Send him/her back where he/she came from. He/She can await my arrival with the rest of Tamriel." The seekers will then shower you with their Seeker Drain spell. While you slowly lose consciousness, you can see Miraak mount Sahrotaar and fly away.

At the Summit of Apocrypha[edit]

Upon your arrival with Sahrotaar, Miraak will say "Sahrotaar, are you so easily swayed? No. Not yet. We should greet our guest first. And so the First Dragonborn meets the Last Dragonborn at the summit of Apocrypha. No doubt just as Hermaeus Mora intended. He is a fickle master, you know. But now I will be free of him. My time in Apocrypha is over. You are here in your full power, and thus subject to my full power. You will die. And with the power of your soul, I will return to Solstheim and be master of my own fate once again." Miraak will then initiate combat and may say "Kruziikrel! Relonikiv! Now!"

When Miraak reaches somewhere between 20% and 10% of his health, he will say "Kruziikrel,ziil los dii du!!" and absorb Kruziikrel's soul, regaining full health. For the second time when Miraak reaches somewhere between 20% and 10% of his health, he will say "Relonikiv, ziil los dii du!" and absorb Relonikiv's soul to regain full health. For the third time when Miraak reaches somewhere between 20% and 10% of his health, he will say "Sahrotaar, ziil los dii du!"and absorb Sahrotaar's soul to regain full health.

For the fourth and final time, when Miraak's health gets low enough, he will use his Become Ethereal and Whirlwind Sprint shouts to try to escape. Hermaeus Mora will appear and cause Miraak to hover over the center. Hermaeus Mora will say "Did you think you could escape me, Miraak? You can hide nothing from me here." and will stab him with a tentacle to kill him. Hermaeus Mora will then continue his speech: "No matter. I have found a new Dragonborn to serve me." Miraak, in his dying breath will then say "May he/she be rewarded for his/her service as I am!" Miraak will then disintegrate into a skeleton, and Hermaeus Mora will tell you "Miraak harbored fantasies of rebellion against me. Learn from his example. Serve me faithfully, and you will continue to be richly rewarded."

Quest-Related Dialogue[edit]

At the Summit of Apocrypha[edit]

While during the battle with Miraak you cannot engage him in conversation, he may say a number of things to you depending on several factors.

Condition Phrase
At any time "Hermaeus Mora is laughing at us, you know."
"This is the only way, Dragonborn. The only way I can be free."
Between 50% and 100% Health "I am done being Hermaeus Mora's pawn."
Below 25% Health "You are strong. Stronger than I believed possible."
Below 25% Health and have finished The Way of the Voice "The Greybeards taught you well."
Miraak has killed one dragon "You fight valiantly against fate, but I am stronger here."
Miraak has killed two dragons "I know things the Greybeards will never teach you."
Miraak has killed all three dragons "This cannot be. I am master of my own fate!"
Miraak has killed all three dragons and is below 25% Health "Beware. Hermaeus Mora will betray you as he has me."
Player has defeated Alduin "Felling Alduin was a mighty deed, and I thank you for it. He would have proved troublesome to me."
Player uses all three words of the Dragon Aspect Shout "So, you use my own Shout against me. You learn quickly."
Miraak loses sight of the player "There's no escape from this place."
"You are in my power here."
"Hiding is beneath you, Dragonborn."
Miraak regains sight of the player "Ah, now we can finish this."
"Did you think to escape me?"
"It's too late for regrets, Dragonborn."
Player jumps off the platform, and is teleported back "You cannot flee me, Dragonborn."
"I can call you back to my tower as often as I like."
"Your death will not be that painless."

Miraak may also taunt his dragons by saying: "Join the Last Dragonborn in his/her destruction." or "So easily you betray me, after all these years." He may taunt Kruziikrel: "I thought you were stronger than this, Kruziikrel." He may also taunt Sahrotaar: "I always knew you were weak-minded, Sahrotaar."

Unused Dialogue[edit]

Originally, Miraak was to be first battled in the exterior of his temple during The Temple of Miraak and has some unused dialogue relating to the encounter. You could engage in conversation with him, and Miraak would have said: "And here you are, just as I asked. How very kind of you. I presume you've already seen some of what I've accomplished. There is so, so much more to be done. I'm glad you're here." You could have then said that he said he would show you your true power, and he would have replied by saying: "If only it could be so. In order to subdue this chaotic world, to set things right, I must return to this realm in full." You then had two options: You could have said no, and Miraak would have said: "Then this will be over soon for you." You could have said yes, and Miraak would have said: "Good. Then let us see who truly has the soul of the Dov." Either way, Miraak would have then initiated combat.

Stealing Souls[edit]

"Not this time, Dragonborn. This one's mine."

Once you complete the quest The Temple of Miraak, Miraak will begin stealing dragon souls from you, whether you are in Skyrim or on Solstheim. The first time you kill a dragon, he will always appear, and thereafter every time you kill a dragon with a soul that can be absorbed, there is a 25% chance that Miraak will appear. When this occurs, he will be in a semi-transparent and invulnerable state, and will absorb the soul of the slain dragon, preventing you from obtaining it. He will then disappear. This event will continue to happen until Miraak is defeated during the quest At the Summit of Apocrypha.

When Miraak steals a dragon soul, he may say one of the following lines: "Not this time, Dragonborn. This one's mine." or "It takes a strong will to command a Dragon's soul, perhaps you aren't as powerful as you think." or "Do you ever wonder if it hurts? To have one's soul ripped out like that?" or "This dragon's soul belongs to me." or "Thank you for your help. We will meet again soon." or "I grow ever stronger, Dragonborn." or "One step closer to my return."

The only exception is when you kill the dragon at Saering's Watch during The Fate of the Skaal. If you do not have any stored souls, and you haven't yet unlocked the first word of Bend Will, Miraak will not appear.

Miraak's skeleton


Miraak knows the following spells and shouts:

Note that Miraak's shouts are customized and most have much shorter recovery times than the regular versions.


  • His name means "allegiance guide" in the dragon language.
  • There are several different versions of Miraak encountered during the main quest. They have the IDs xx017936, xx017938, xx017F7D, xx017F81 and xx0200D9 and are of the Nord race. The Miraak that is encountered during the quest At the Summit of Apocrypha has a race called Nord with an ID of DLC2MiraakRace.
  • At his highest possible level, Miraak is one of the three highest level NPCs in the game (one of the others being the Magic Anomaly, which has no max level at all, with the other being Arngeir, whose level is static).
  • You can become Miraak's slave for as long as you like. Approach an All-Maker stone that has not yet been cleansed, and you will start using a hammer and chisel to shape the stone. Attempting to move will allow you to regain control. Any time you sleep on Solstheim, you will wake up entranced at one of the stones already working.
  • He appears to use a Shout to rip the souls from the three dragons in the fight, but analysis via the Creation Kit of the back-end mechanics of this "Shout" clearly label this as a "Fake" shout repeatedly, and don't even assign an actual name (instead leaving the form copy source in-game names in as unseen extraneous data). The dragon language used ("<DragonName>, ziil los di du!") also do not fit any known pattern of Words of Power in any previous Shout, being instead a structured sentence ("<DragonName>, your soul is mine to devour!")
  • He cannot be ragdolled under any circumstances, but can be staggered.
  • His Dragon Aspect shout will give him the benefits from the shout, but it won't summon an Ancient Dragonborn to fight for him.
  • At one point, it was intended that you could prevent Miraak from stealing a soul by getting him to the bleedout state. In the final design, however, this is impossible, since he is invulnerable.
  • Nahkriin seems to mention his name when speaking "Zu'u uth nall [sic] thurri dein daar miiraak." However, the priest is not referring to an 'allegiance guide' but rather to a 'portal'.
  • Miraak also appears as the card Miraak, Dragonborn in Legends.


  • After Miraak is defeated his corpse may fall through the floor preventing his items from being looted.
    • Pc22.png Using the console command player.moveto xx01fb99 will bring you to the place that Miraak fell to. It is right below the place you fight him, on standable ground. You can also use the command tcl to turn off collision to clip through the floor, loot his corpse, then move back up to the surface. Use tcl again to turn collision back on.
  • The battle with Miraak is scripted. When Miraak drops below 20% health, he will become ethereal and head to the pool in the center of the platform. After killing a dragon and absorbing its soul, he will regain full health and continue the fight. This cycle must happen twice in order to complete the battle. However, if you deal enough damage in a single strike or spell to bring him below 10% health, he will kill a dragon, absorb its soul, but will be unable to regain full health. This will cause him to stay ethereal, making the fight impossible to complete.
    • PC Only This bug is fixed by version 2.0.7 of the Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.
    • Pc22.png Open the console, click on Miraak, and type resurrect 1 or ResetHealth. This should bring Miraak back to full health, causing him to drop the ethereal effect and continue the battle.
    • Reloading a save should fix this. You may want to make a save before fighting Miraak, as the last autosave checkpoint is before the dragon riding tutorial.
    • Becoming fully hidden may fix this. There is a stack of books that sneaking behind should suffice.
    • If none of the above options work, Dragonrend Sahrotaar only. Once he lands, kill him. It may take a while, but he won't attack you. After you kill him, Miraak should almost immediately absorb Sahrotaar's soul, and the fight can continue. [verification needed]
  • If Miraak arrives to steal a dragon soul the dragon may not burn and Miraak will stay with the corpse failing to absorb the soul.
  • If you have a perk that disintegrates an enemy at a certain health percentage and you manage to do this before Miraak's first dragon soul, he will disappear and nothing happens. ?
    • To fix this reload an earlier save.